Sober Not Somber Hour

Foreign. Hi, everyone. Jen Barale here. Welcome into Sober Not Somber hour. Four o' clock on a Tuesday. How is everyone today? How's. How's life? How's mental health? I. I'm doing okay. Doing okay. I have had a really interesting day of just being on virtual zoom calls. And you know when like, one meeting starts to run into the next and you feel like you're having the same conversation and the same things come up, all in a good way. That has been the story of today for me. So, yeah, welcome in. I am going to be featuring a bev today, so if you haven't been with me before.

During Sober Not Somber hour, I always highlight a favorite non alcoholic beverage. And today is one from a local company called Saunawater. Their origin story began with Cedar and stone sauna and Duluth and Portage Brewing. And they made this really great non alcoholic botanical beverage in Duluth and got so much traction. It was such a unique beverage and I've tasted a lot of NA beverages. This is one that I absolutely love. And then they only had one flavor. It was just sauna water. And they just expanded and added two new flavors.

Okay. So this one blew me away. Blew me away. I thought they hit it with their first foray into the sauna water experience because it was juniper, cardamom, lemon, grapefruit. This one is lime, smoked sea salt, juniper needles and sage. And it's craveable. It's absolutely craveable. Yeah. Hey, Luke. Yeah. Best stuff ever. Best stuff ever. I can't say enough about it. Locale. I believe each can is anywhere from, oh, this is five calories. Shut up. Five calories, folks. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. For those of you in training or running, you know, insane amounts of distance, like Luke, who's running 45 at some point here this spring, these Bevs are healthy, refreshing, and so good.

And paired well with sauna. Oh, my gosh. Emily. Hi. The whole Cadre team is tuning in together here. Okay, that's amazing. Okay, so. So January in Minneapolis. The theme for the month set by the Cadresphere is reset the pace. And I'm just even thinking back to two weeks ago. Like, what was I even talking about? And then with all the unrest in Minneapolis and everything going on, I have felt, along with everyone, a complete, like, dysregulation of my nervous system. Like, just completely out of sorts.

Like, I'm usually a pretty good sleeper. I'm waking up, like, in the middle of the night with my heart racing, holding space for community, being out protesting, trying to get Rest. And this has been the story really heavily over the last couple weeks. And even last week feels like a complete, like different month ago. So resetting the pace, the pace is moments of actual, like slowing down to realize the gravity of what is happening in our communities and then the state that our body is in due to all of this change and trying to process these things that are happening in our world and being responsive as much as we can.

A lot of the conversations in the sauna where I've been holding space for people to come together have been around things like guilt, not doing enough, feeling exhausted, and then also just trying to rise up and show up. So the pace has been insane, insane. And sometimes I've just had to like check out and rest knowing that I can't be in it like every day, like I need to take breaks. Yeah. Rachel's chiming in saying, you guys have been hit hard lately for sure. So today, like the micro theme of the week happens to be choosing what gets energy.

And I, I feel like this is, I don't know, the year of the snake. So if you follow the Chinese New Year, we still have about a month left before the, the tail end of the rattler like disappears. And we've shed everything that we need to from this past the year of the snake, which, you know, up to 12 months of just clearing energy, choosing different energy. I mean, that's what this is. The fire horse comes in February 17th. So what I'm thinking about is the relationship of choosing things that sustain good energy and also the real and true cost of not being like, not understanding what energy or negative energy impacts going forward.

So I'll use the example of sobriety, of course, because this is sober, not somber hour. When I think of all of the energy I chose to put into alcohol on a daily basis, When I think of that energy, it's not just the energy of drinking and being an active, like you know, use of alcohol through an evening or whatever. The actual energy of alcohol is 24, 7, at least for me at the end of, in the height of my addiction, it was anxiety related. So I think it's just a really interesting concept to look at because I could say, well, I was just drinking in the evening.

Alcohol just got my energy and attention, let's say from five to midnight. But the true cost of that energy and the output that I gave to alcohol was all consuming. I thought about it in the morning when I was hungover. I thought about it when I got my first coffee and tried to get into my day and be productive. I thought about it when I went and worked out over my noon hour how like dehydrated or complete depleted I was, but also in search of like a reset and the pace that I did life at in my 20s and 30s, crazy so.

And then also just thinking about that, that first drink, maybe when I got home at 5 or 6, 6:30, whatever. So the. All the energy put into, how was I going to get my next drink? When was I going to be able to drink again? Where would I go to buy it? What liquor store would I go to tonight? What event did I have that I could, you know, drink responsibly at and then leave to drink more at home? All of those things. That is the true energy cost of alcohol and addiction. Pause there. Does this resonate with anyone?

So good. So, so good. So what I am relating this to now is thinking about how we can really be aware of that and what you might want to change. If you are choosing to put your energy into something, I'd invite you to choose one thing right now. What comes to your mind? What have you been putting energy into right now? And how is it serving you or not? Rachel says, yeah, same for me with food. Obviously, not eating leads to lack of energy, but the amount of space it took up in my mind is even worse.

So your addiction with food or your obsession with it, um, even if you're not doing it, it's still taking up mental space. So, yeah, I think those little things that seemingly are harmless. And I'm going to use just a recent sort of example in a, like a work setting where I have someone I'm partnering with or working with. Right. And the energy I'm putting forward into this collaboration or partnership. And what should be somewhat easier, straightforward to me in a partnership, is being reflected that there's a lot of energy outside of the time I spend on that project that is mental headspace, dedicated to energy and not in a great way around things to solve or things that pop up with this partnership, that's just challenging.

So choosing to spend your energy in a way where you truly recognize the cost, the true cost of a relationship, a thing, a habit, is, you know, something that I'm really thinking about as we take yet another month to kind of round out this year and like, clear the energy of what's not working and really embrace the fire horse when that arrives February 17th, and to be able to capitalize on the momentum and the things promised, like, again, really clearing the energy and being fully aware. So I am working on that anyone else have challenging things, habits, work, life, balance, other things that they have been putting a lot of energy to.

I gave my example of alcohol addiction but I also think right now how much attention in particular in Minneapolis are we giving to the media and our scrolling, non ending scrolling stream? So yeah, that's a big one. I have to like be able to like step away from that because I'm putting energy into it at different times of the day and doesn't it's not really serving me well. So I've tried to pare back just you know, find the balance to be informed but also to be mindful of how much energy I'm putting into everything that's happening.

There's only so much we as humans can take and take in. You know, we by design we're not meant to respond to global crises and this obviously in Minneapolis, what's happening is right here now. But even that feels hard to sort of get our hands around and manage like how we actually bring our community care and make change. And there are definitely ways to do that as we're discovering and it's the small things in community. But this kind of global media accessibility is really an energy suck can be.

So whether you're watching this now or you know, post recording, being truthful with yourself about the true energy costs of those things is what I leave you with today. Just to ponder as I finish my beverage. Here it is seriously so good again. This one has lime, smoked sea salt, juniper needles and sage. Local company, I love it. I just had a sauna and sobriety event Sunday night two nights ago and people came together, came out experienced community and that was a great choice. So I talked a lot about the negative of putting energy in places that sort of drain you.

But community and that experience, that mood energy, that's what I'm seeking because that carries me forward and I hope everyone has access to that. I mean Cadre as a platform is access to a little burst of energy and hopefully some inspiration from a contributor that you can feel armored up and go out into the world and do what you need to do. I appreciate you all so much. I'm going to sign off for January 20 sober not somber hour. Oh and next week, yeah, I'm going to have to figure out a different time because I will be at an event and leading a conversation on wake up to workplace drinking culture and that is a 3 to 5pm event so.

So yeah, I will have to figure out how to choose a slightly different time for sober not summer hour. I usually never do. I'm like clockwork here on a Tuesday, as you all are. Thank you, Rachel, Emily, for chiming in today. Luke, it was great to see you. Great to sit with you as well. And. Yeah, let's share a beverage sometime soon. Happy Tuesday and. And just be well.